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The Dynamics of Scheduling

Scheduling : for many of us scheduling is a common term for referencing a period of time allocated for an activity. That allocation may be contrasted against a vertical time-line (ruler) as is common with day timers, Microsoft Outlook and other appointment book presentations. DBI represents this type of functionality in the calendar and appointment scheduling controls found in Studio Controls.

An alternate perspective in scheduling may be termed as Gantt-style, a common reference in project management, where a value of time (time bar) is associated with a resource in relation to a horizontal time line (ruler). Gantt includes a definition where the relation of activities on a time line (ruler) may be linked or have affect to other activities/ resources along the same time line. The concept of Gantt in terms of scheduling resources (assets) allows a quick reference of availability which may or may not be directly related to other entities. The ability at a high level to see what a list of resources are doing, when, where, how and why. DBI represents this type of Macro Scheduling application functionality in terms of Solutions Schedule.

TERMINOLOGY

There are three distinct perspectives to the term scheduling; Appointment Scheduling, Multi-Resource / Asset Management Scheduling and Project management. Project management incorporates an element of timeline scheduling, however, its true value is in managing a collection of required resources to complete a series of tasks in direct relation to each other, over a proposed period of time. Appointment scheduling focuses on an individual entity or entities over a series of hours or days. What may be termed as micro scheduling. Multi-resource and asset management scheduling on the other hand focuses on a list of entities (typically a Y axis presentation) and their status along a fixed or varying time line (an X axis orientation) which may include other relational information captured by an associated time bar. The concept of macro scheduling may be termed in this context.

In many scheduling instances macro (resource) and micro (appointment) scheduling views are needed to give end-users the right tools at the right time and to correctly present and interact with time-based relational information. For an in-depth discussion with Visual Studio sample code navigate to… Case Study